How to Market your Book?

Writing a book is a strenuous process.  During that period, you are detached from the world and deeply attached to your book. You pour your heart and soul into it and also ensconce bits of your life. However, there is no respite even after finding a suitable publisher for the book. You have to coordinate with the marketing team of your self-publisher in India or an independent promoter for the promotion of your book.

The only drawback is that you are a debut author. You may not be familiar with the promotion process. The only thing you resort is, passing the link of your book to all people in your contact list. You can do it to some extent. But after repeatedly iterating the process, you are driving people nuts.

One of the ways of promoting the book is through Goodreads. The platform is a second home for all the bibliophiles tucked away from the monotonous and harsh reality.

We have compiled a comprehensive guide on how to make the best use of Goodreads to promote your book. Here are some of the ways you can do so:

 

Be an active user

Yes, that is the first step to networking and finding your potential audience. Write reviews of books you have read in a succinct manner.  Connect with like-minded people, compare books, build healthy relationships and recommend books to each other. Add a lot of bibliophiles in your friend list, so that it becomes easier to create a buzz about your book.

Tip: Connect with fellow authors they might guide you in promoting your book. Be supportive of each other.

Groups

Goodreads group are a great way of promoting your book. Some groups are 1000 or even 3000 members strong. The audience usually is a healthy mix of various nationalities. There are diverse categories of discussion in the groups. Ensure that you promote your book in the right category.

 

Author Page

You have been an active user and your book has hit the book stores. What next? Set an author page. Sign up for The Goodreads Author Program. In your author page, make sure to add vital information about your book such as page length, ISBN number, publisher name and also make sure you write your introduction. Interesting and creative intros are sure to catch some eyeballs.

 

Reviewers

As mentioned earlier, Good Reads is a bookworm haven. There are passionate people who talk about books and even review books for a living. Spot users who constantly review books in the groups.

Again, there are two categories to rank the reviewers. First one is the ‘Top Reviewer’ category which ranks users on the number of books they have reviewed per week. The second one is the ‘The Best Reviewer’ category which presents a hierarchy of reviewers based on the number of likes on their respective reviewers. The rank is generally displayed in the profile, preferably approach the reviewers belonging to the second category.

Tip: Book bloggers generally share their reviews and blogs in Goodreads groups. Go through their blogs and pick the best ones 😊 Thank the reviewers who have already reviewed the book. Trust me, words of appreciation can mean a lot to a person.

 

Giveaway

Who doesn’t love free books? Everyone does. Give some copies of books to selected users by running a giveaway on Goodreads. Giveaway is open for the number of days you specify. Goodreads randomly chooses winners and sends the email addresses and contact details of the winners. Request the winners to write short reviews on both Goodreads and Amazon. Don’t be crestfallen when they don’t write reviews of the book.

Tip: Give away signed copies alongside a personalized message to the winners. The readers usually have a soft corner for signed copies and might dive into the book as soon as they receive one.

 

Q & A Session

Spare one day of your life for an insightful discussion on your book. Conduct a Q & A session on your author page. Invite as many people you can. Make sure that the discussion is not only centered on your book but reading in general. Ensure that the session does not veer away from your book and subtly plug your book amidst the genre discussion.

Tip: Invite reviewers who had already reviewed your book. Request them to call their friends for the discussion. This way your book can reach many people at a time

 

So, keep all your worries at bay and put these methods into action.